‘The capital-relation is a relation of compulsion, the aim of which is to extract surplus labour by prolonging labour time — it is a relation of compulsion which does not rest on any personal relations of domination and dependence, but simply arises out of the difference in economic functions.’ MECW 34. p. 426

2 Responses to Impersonal Compulsion.

Do you have the German for compulsion here? Is it “Zwang”? Just because if it was that would line Marx up nicely with Fichte and Hegel on “Zwang”… Hegel sees “Zwang” as inherent to relations of private property/contract (and in this he’s essentially picking up parts of Fichte’s political philosophy)